Morning journal and courier., 1887-03-08
4 Hind Inventor.

Vienna Dispatch to the London Standard have had the opportunity of meeting the inventor of the new rife, Herr Franz ForteI- ka, former lieutenant in the Austrian army, who during the first campaign in Bos- mia received shot in his right eye which de- stroyed the optic nerve, and indirectly so af- fected the left eye that the poor officer, now only twenty-eight years old, has been for the last nine years totally blind. But without the use of his eyesight this ingenious man has invented during these years not only new magazine rife, but also two machines for the authorization of iron, steel and other metals at a cost which must be called ridicu- lously small further an apparatus for auto-- nautical mapping, a new cicrometer, new sort of gunpowder, not to speak of smaller inventions which found their way into the lesser industrial establishments of Vienna, and saved the inventor from starvation, as his greater discoveries, far from bringing him money as yet, necessitate an outlay which he can only afford by extreme person al priyations. My rife," complained the unfortunate inventor fFwould have long been in the hands of the British government had the advance money which 1 obtained from 8 private person in London been more than twenty pounds, which did not suffice for the wages of the one workman who assists me and the necessary material. Now at last it is finished, and though I may fall into the fault of all inventors, consider it the best rifle existing, being without the disadvanta- ges of other machine rifles and with many advantages over them. 1 can prove by my Austrian and German patents of some five years ago that the straight pull system which distinguishes every modern rife and in it. self, without the machine, secures the double effect has been my invention. Upon this and upon other appropriations in the same line by different successful inventors I do not lay any stress. There is my new rifle, which in short has the following advantages: It can be used as a single loader even with an attached magazine, the cartridges not thrown into the magazine in loose form, but lie one above the other, without the pos sibility of placing them wrongly; the maga- zine can be attached or not at will, all parts are solid, no spiral spring exists in the rife, the price of my weapon with royalty and everything else will be under two pounds. Every old system, with the exception of Werndrs, can be used for transformation into my rifle at cost of eight or ten shll- lings-less in the case of Gras, Mauser, Der dan Beaumont, and something more in the case of the Henry-Martini."
 And how can you make any invention, especially such complicated one as a rifle, without unfortunately being unable to see the separate parts. and how are your devices carried out by the workman2"
 '1 see with my fingers and not in one sin gle case have they deceived me. It's really curious that when great or minute measure ments are in question those who see with their eyes are wrong, and I with the use of my fingers am right. The models for my machines against oxidation of metals Were entirely made by myself from carved wood, with the help of string, wire and bread crumb. I am now devising very complica- ted electric apparatus"